The Magic Circle

Andrew was a young kid who grew up practicing magic at his family’s farmhouse in Michigan. As his interest in magic grew, he learned about an organization called the Magic Circle in London. The Magic Circle is the oldest society of magicians in the world, and young Andrew’s ambition was to become a member.

Twenty-five years later, having established himself as a well-known magician, Andrew was invited to audition for membership. To become a member, one had to pass an audition in front of 140 of the best magicians in the world, experts who knew exactly how every trick was performed.?

Andrew was very intimidated. He wanted to ensure that he was well-prepared. About two weeks before his audition, he was doing a two-day workshop for a company in Chicago. There were about 100 people, and he thought this was the perfect opportunity to rehearse for his audition.

On the first day of the workshop, he stepped in front of the group and started to perform a trick. Things went wrong. In fact, so wrong that people in the audience started sarcastically saying, “Oh, so that's how you perform a trick?” This shook Andrew a little bit, but he just rolled with it and went on with the workshop.

On the second day, he stepped in front of the audience again. A different trick this time. As he started to perform the trick, he failed again.?

Now he was really shaken up. With just two weeks to go before the biggest audition of his life, he had failed at two magic tricks he had performed for decades. He was so shaken that he stepped to the side and asked one of his colleagues to step in for him.

His colleague stepped forward and in front of 100 people, he looked over at Andrew and asked, “What's going on with you? I have never seen you fail like this.”

Andrew was very humbled. He took his colleague’s question to heart. He thought for a moment and said aloud, “I don't believe I'm good enough to become a member of the Magic Circle.” His colleague lovingly looked over at him and said, “Abracadabra. What you speak is what you create.”

This sentence create an immediate shift for Andrew. It took him back in time. As a curious magician, he had researched the meaning of the word “Abracadabra” and discovered that it is an Aramaic word that translates to “What you speak is what you create.”

He realised that just like magicians have a powerful script running in their heads that works its way through their hands, he too had this script running in his head. He immediately got to work rewiring his brain.

For the next two weeks, every morning, Andrew took 20 minutes to sit down and write a first-person account of what his audition was going to look like, what it was going to feel like, all in the most positive terms. It included sentences like, “I can feel the energy from the group; they want me to succeed.” He did this every day for two weeks. Finally, the day of his audition came, and he went to London. He did his audition and became a member of the Magic Circle.

When I heard Andrew’s story in his TED Talk, he had already been a member of the Magic Circle for 14 years. Today, Andrew Bennett is not only a member of the Magic Circle but also an acclaimed speaker, leadership consultant, and coach who uses his magic to inspire and teach others.

I found Andrew’s story fascinating. Many of us have the potential, the knowledge, and the skills, but the script that runs in our heads gets in the way. Becoming aware of this script and how it holds us back can set us on a trajectory that leads to where we want to be.?

This awareness equips us to ask ourselves:?

·????? Are the words we use in our internal and external dialogue constructive, generative, and positive, or destructive, limiting, and negative?

·????? Are the words I'm using right now moving me towards what I want, or are they moving me towards what I don't want?

As a leader, asking these questions becomes all the more important because what we say has a profound impact on those we lead and in shaping the culture of our organizations.

Andrew’s story has helped me awaken a part of myself that asks these questions and gets me thinking about how I am contributing to the reality that I am creating.

I’d love to hear your thoughts – do you believe in the concept of "Abracadabra: What you speak is what you create?"